The Persistence of Vision

"The Persistence of Vision"...  it's the title of an upcoming exhibition that my work will be shown in.  Here's a press release about it.

"The Persistence of Vision"... it's about the persistence of human beings to be part of the connected thread of human creativity that runs under everything, regardless of the pressures of the world, and also because of those pressures.

It's also about my own life as an artist: knowing I am on the right track, knowing it from the inside out, knowing that I can find and exercise my voice if I stay the path.  I have discovered that in order to be an artist, I need a lot of sheer dogged stubborn refusal to succumb to all the noise that I myself generate simply by being in this world.  Sometimes it amazes me that I manage it at all.  

But then, look: I was invited to join a group of very diverse artists, all of whom know about persistence.  And now we are having an exhibition of our work.

"The Persistence of Vision"... it does pay off, sooner or later.

this is my brain on art

Back when I was in art school, we were given an assignment to make "an artist's toolbox".  After some consideration, I decided there was no definitive artist's toolbox outside the artist's own mind, so I made "The Creative Brain".

It is made of coloured wires, xmas lights, a small container filled with water and an aquarium aerator.  Back then I called it The Creative Brain, and I still do... but in my growing maturity as an artist, I realize there's some heart and soul in the thing as well.

A brain hums, a heart pumps, and a soul casts light, n'est pas?

papers and patterns

The art store where I work part-time has a paper sale this month.  I love decorative papers, and there are some really gorgeous new ones so of course I had to buy a few sheets yesterday.  

Paper is like fabric, to me: beautiful + tactile = irresistible!

There are often pockets of time for creative pursuits at the store, so some days I bring a sketchbook and do portraits.  Yesterday I began with paper collage and then made portraits on top with paint markers.

Above: I like the combined patterns and colours of the papers, but not sure how I like the drawing on top.  Well, I'll call that one a "study"  *laughs*

Below: The drawing is more to my liking, and integrated better with the collaged paper too.

Above: Portrait of CP which I made today.  I like this one a lot.  CP's face has a very interesting pattern.  Can you see how the shape of her eyebrows relate to the shape of her mouth and hairline, how the fall of her hair is echoed in her nose and chin shapes?

While I drew, we were talking about patterns, and how pattern recognition can help you to draw basically anything.  In order to recognize patterns, you must continually observe them in the world.  Forget what you think things look like - your mind's paradigms are just that - and observe the actual patterns before you.  It does not take long to realize that everything you see is made up of patterns; that the whole world is composed of observable and inter-connected relationships.

Pattern observation in the visual world has become a joyful exercise for me.  It makes my eyes happy, and then I am never bored no matter where I am or how long I must wait there.

Above: photo I took out the window of the city bus this morning.

Patterns on paper, patterns in faces, patterns on the street... they are everywhere.

Body Project #2

In mid-January I had the great pleasure of teaching an art class with Grade One students who were learning about and discussing ideas of "community".  It was a Campus Calgary session, and I had three mornings with them.  

First we briefly talked about what community means, discussing concepts like Sharing, Mastery, Generosity and Belonging.  

Then we made a body project.  It was a really big project!

 

Working with a partner, the students took turns laying on large sheets of cardboard and traced one another's body shapes with crayons.  Their teacher, parent volunteers and I cut out the body outlines.

    

Then the students painted one side of their body cut-out, and used collage techniques to glue coloured papers, fabrics, yarn and beads on the other side.

 

On the last day we hung them from the ceiling, with their feet just above the floor, to create an art installation.  The body shapes could move and twirl on their strings, creating a kind of dance.  It was a whole community of colourful dancing figures!

I delight in creating large art projects with students who come out for the Campus Calgary sessions at the Arts Commons.  

Any creative process spanning several days is an opportunity for more in-depth reflection of ideas and processes.  And if you think of creativity as a problem-solving tool, well then "sleeping on it" is an important element, n'est ce pas?

Many thanks as always to the supportive people at Arts Commons, to Mrs. G, the parent volunteers, and to the kids who are invariably eager and expansive thinkers and doers.  

Working together, we create what I hope are memorable learning experiences, and that is a type of community worth being involved in.

the kitchen and the studio

What happens in the kitchen is not so different from what happens in the studio. Sometimes in fact, it is pretty much exactly the same thing.

In the kitchen:

This morning I made a few "blind" drawings in a new 6x8" hardbound sketchbook.

It was a nice morning mediation kind of exercise, which I did while sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a cup of hot black tea.

Because I haven't done these in awhile, they feel different again.  I used more colour, and spent more time working on them, than in the previous sketchbook.

In the studio:

During the last few weeks, I've been taking the idea of the blind drawings...

(which in this case means making the lines and shapes entirely with my eyes closed, and then working them up a little bit more with eyes open)

...and exploring how I might translate them into paintings.

These four studies are still in progress.  Oil on wood panels, 12x16 inches each.

The feeling of a brush laden with oil paint and moving over a wood panel is quite different from the feeling of a pen or marker moving over the surface of paper.

In between all this, I made a large oil painting.  It's about 72 inches wide, and I think it's finished... though it'll have to sit for a bit before I'm sure.

I've heard that the studies are supposed to come before the large work, but in this case they are all happening together.

It's so good to be working with oils again, in a studio that is really separate from the house.  A couple of weeks ago my husband helped to install an exhaust fan, and together with the air exchange and wearing a mask and gloves, I am confident to use the various oil mediums again without compromising my health.

And there is one corner of my still-new garage studio, showing a few of the "Sound" paintings and my bookshelf which also contains plastic storage tubs filled with printmaking tools and supplies, including the various parts of an almost-finished installation project which I've been working on for almost 7 months now.

Also on the bookshelf, lit-up, is my Creative Brain, my much-loved studio mascot.

:)

the state of the studio

Yesterday I worked in the studio, mainly just prepping some grounds.  It is a low-energy time of year for me, so prepping grounds is the perfect activity: not too much energy required, just a slow repetition of colour and texture without any pressure to create "something good" because most of it will be covered up and transformed anyway.

At the end of the evening I had some leftover paint and so I touched on a couple of the small oil paintings which have been in progress for about 15 months now.

You know that thing that can happen when you're tired and you've been working all day and then, at the end, you do something almost in a dream state and it jumps over into another path of perception.  And then you love the work you did just there, not because the work itself is great (it usually isn't) but because some part of it contains a record of a discovery.

And then, exhausted, I slept and dreamt poems where it didn't matter whether or not I knew in which direction the stream was flowing.

Here in Calgary today will be 12 seconds longer than yesterday.  By December 31st the day will be just over a minute longer than today.

Happy Solstice, dear Reader!

Outside and Inside

outside

inside

some old, some new

Less words, more images

8x10 sketch

last night at the kitchen table

oil-based paint marker and gouache in 9x12 sketchbook

yesterday while working at the art supply store

oil-based paint marker and gouache in 9x12 sketchbook

yesterday while working at the art supply store

oil-based paint marker and gouache in 9x12 sketchbook

yesterday while working at the art supply store

Alberta Landscape #97: view

Alberta Landscape #97: palette

Alberta Landscape #97: oil on panel, 12x12 inches

6 weeks ago, near Black Diamond AB

Ink Cap mushrooms - they really do make an "ink" you can draw with!

8 weeks ago

From the Archives (2)

Every image has a story.  Here are some images containing stories about my life after I returned from Malaysia back to Canada.  

I got my first real artist studio!  What a fine feeling, to have "a room of my own".  Although still a shared space, this studio was a big step up from painting in the tiny galley-style kitchen of my (also shared) apartment.  First thing I did was to stretch and gesso a few canvases.

I got back into "real" life drawing - in Malaysia, officially a Muslim country, art models were clothed.  The frustration of the interrupted line when drawing may have been a factor in spurring me to get more serious in my figure drawing/painting explorations over the next few years.

link to figurative work on my website

One day on leaving my apartment I found a plant upside-down under its pot on the walkway.  How could I not rescue it?  After a bit of attention it began to thrive again, and I made a painting of it.  This plant lives with me still; it is commonly known as a fig tree.

blind line

Life has got very busy these last few weeks, and I continue along with the blind line drawings.  They have become a sort of meditation for me, an activity for which there is no hoped-for end result and therefore no pressure.

The drawings have morphed a bit over time, as my hand develops a memory for the shapes and lines.  Some of the coloured-in bits I can also now do without looking, an interesting development.  

Where will this practice take me?  For the time being I just keep drawing and watching and waiting.

patterns and people

I started my morning with a couple of quick sketches.  First an eyes-closed drawing (the colouring-in parts are done with eyes open) and then a portrait of my husband.  

Both done with Sharpie paint markers + watercolour crayons on 130lb paper, 9x12 inches.

Patterns and people.  A good start to this day.

From the Archives (1)

I've been going through some old image files...

I went to Capilano College in 1994-6, enrolled in the Studio Arts Foundation program there.  I recently discovered, to my dismay, that the Studio Arts program no longer exists at what is now Capilano University.

While at the College, I applied for and received an international study grant which allowed me to live in Kuala Lumpur and study Fine Arts at the Institut Seni Lukis Malaysia.  It was a grand adventure, both exhilarating and at times very difficult, as all grand adventures are.  

Among other things I made some portraits while living and studying in KL.

And I continued to make portraits when I returned to Canada.

 



















It's interesting to look through older work, sort of nostalgic and also affirming: I've been at this art practice thing for awhile now, getting on a couple of decades.

Sometimes I feel frustrated with what seems a lack of worldly success... but then I think about all the twists and turns a life can take, and I feel fortunate to have been able to persevere with making art of one sort or another pretty much all my life.

There are many more archives and I may post some more images over the next few weeks.  It seems like a necessary sort of grounding exercise right now.

Thanks for reading :)